Man seriously injured in Dartmouth shooting

Halifax police officers at the scene of an early-morning shooting in Dartmouth on Monday. A 50-year-old man was seriously injured in the incident. (IAN FAIRCLOUGH)

A man is in hospital after being shot early Monday morning in Dartmouth.

Halifax Regional Police were called to 50 Lahey Rd. at 2:15 a.m. and found the 50-year-old victim at the back of a home.

The man told officers that he was walking down the road when two males stopped him and robbed him. One of them then pulled out a firearm and shot the victim in the torso.

Police say the man ran up a driveway and yelled for help and the suspects fled on foot. The victim was taken to hospital in Halifax with what police described as life-threatening injuries.

Victoria Butler lives two doors down in an apartment building and from her unit she can see the backyard of the house where the man went for help.

“I was watching TV and I heard a gunshot,” she said. “Not even five minutes later I heard a man yelling: ‘Help, help, help, I’ve been shot.’”

She said she looked out her window and saw the man “standing at the people’s fence trying to get their attention.” Butler said both she and the people in the house then called police.

She said the man had gone to the back door of the house. Although she didn’t know where he had been shot, “I knew it was serious.” She said he was standing on the steps to the deck and “he didn’t look like he was well at all.”

Later in the day, no one answered the door at the home where the man was found.

A man was shot early Monday morning on the street in front of this residence at 50 Lahey Rd. in Dartmouth. (RYAN TAPLIN / Staff)

Butler said other things have happened on the street, but nothing as serious as the shooting.

Layne Doucette lives in a different apartment building three doors down from the shooting in the opposite direction. She expressed shock that someone had been shot on the street.

She didn’t hear the shot or know anything had happened until approached by reporters.

“I didn’t see or hear a thing, and I have a big dog and he didn’t see or hear anything, or he would have barked.”

Doucette said she has lived in the apartment for four months and hadn’t seen any signs of trouble in the area until just recently, referring to a July 5 incident a bit further down the street in which an altercation between two men led to one of them returning in a vehicle later and getting a shotgun out of the trunk. A bystander intervened, and after a short struggle, took the firearm from the suspect.

The two incidents have Doucette worried. “I’m a little nervous about living here, yes, definitely. I guess I live on a pretty bad street.”

Const. Pierre Bourdages said Monday afternoon that police are waiting to talk to the victim. “We have yet to be able to talk to the victim at length. He’s still recovering from surgery,” he said.

Police said the man is from the area, but doesn’t live on Lahey Road or have a connection to the house where he went for help.

The only description the victim had of his assailants was that one was black and one was white.

Forensics officers left the scene shortly after 7:30 a.m. and reopened the street to foot and vehicle traffic.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.